102512: Obedience to Allah Brings Provision

I am thirty years old. I was sinning till five years ago, yet I was praying. Then I got married and travelled to France. Many problems happened to me and I found that the only solution is to return to Allah and repent. So I repented, all praise be to Allah. I started memorising the Quran and seeking Islamic knowledge. I fast the optional fasting throughout the year, I do not miss any prayer in the masjid except rarely; I do not miss the first takbeerah (opening) of any salah (formal prayer) for forty days. All praise be to Allah as He should be praised. As a result of this, my circumstances improved a lot, and I felt a very big positive change in myself as well. The more I obey, the more Allah blesses me, Allah is watching, He knows I am truthful.
The problem is that I do not know why I am exerting effort in worship; is it for the gain of the hereafter or for worldly benefits? If I give in charity for example, I am not sure if I am really seeking the pure reward or because I know that Allah will bless me with much more than what I gave in charity. I am starting to doubt myself; am I a hypocrite?

Praise be to Allah.

I
congratulate you, my brother, on having been guided to repent to Allah and
come back to the right path. This is a blessing that has been bestowed upon
you for which you should be thankful, because it is the aim of every
believer, and this is the most important thing in this world and the
Hereafter. Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him) said: Allah does not
grant His love to the penitents but they become the elite of people before
Him. Were it not that repentance is a word that encompasses all the laws of
Islam and truths of faith, the Lord would not rejoice so greatly over the
repentance of His slave. End quote.

Madarij al-Salikeen
(1/343)

The
fact that the harder you strove in worship, the more means of finding halal
(lawful) provision became available to you shows that fearing and obeying
Allah brings provision, as Allah says (interpretation of the meaning):

“And
whosoever fears Allah and keeps his duty to Him, He will make a way for him
to get out (from every difficulty).

And He
will provide him from (sources) he never could imagine.”

[al-Talaq 65:2-3]

Similarly, sin brings poverty. A person may be deprived of provision because
of sins that he commits. Nothing brings provision like doing acts of
obedience and avoiding sins. But you have to pay attention to your intention
before you start to act, so that the motive for doing good in the first
place will be to seek the pleasure of Allah, and you should keep an eye on
your intention and guard against it being corrupted during and after the
action, so that you can rid it of self-admiration, showing off, and seeking
praise and status in people’s hearts because of it, and avoid doing it
because of what it brings you of good things in such a way that if your
provision was reduced you would stop doing it. These are all things that are
contrary to sincerity and spoil acts of obedience.

Ibn
al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him) said: The things that spoil and
cancel out good deeds are too many to list. What matters is not the deed;
what matters is protecting the deed from that which would spoil it and
cancel it out. End quote.

Al-Wabil al-Sayyib
(p.20)

It
should be noted that if a person’s intention in doing acts of worship is to
seek the pleasure of Allah and His reward in the Hereafter, and he also
intends to seek the immediate reward of obedience in this world, such as
ample provision, a good life and so on, there is nothing wrong with that.

Allah
has encouraged us to obey Him and to avoid disobeying Him, by mentioning the
reward in this world, which indicates that there is no blame on the believer
if he seeks it.

Al-Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen (may Allah have mercy on him) said: If a person
intends two good things by his action: the good of this world and the good
of the Hereafter, there is nothing wrong with that [i.e., no blame and no
sin on him] because Allah says (interpretation of the meaning):

“And
whosoever fears Allah and keeps his duty to Him, He will make a way for him
to get out (from every difficulty).

And He
will provide him from (sources) he never could imagine.”

[al-Talaq 65:2-3]

al-Qawl al-Mufeed
(2/244)

Do not
let the Shaytan tell you that you are a hypocrite or insincere, because his
aim is to divert you from doing righteous deeds and to lead you astray from
the path of good. Do not let your motive in doing acts of obedience be the
provision that they bring, in such a way that if the benefits were to dry up
you would stop doing them. Rather make your deeds sincerely for your Lord,
and thank Him for the good things that He has bestowed on you:

“And
(remember) when your Lord proclaimed: ‘If you give thanks (by accepting
Faith and worshipping none but Allah), I will give you more (of My
Blessings); but if you are thankless (i.e. disbelievers), verily, My
punishment is indeed severe.’”